A SELF MADE HERO
(UN HEROS TRES DISCRET)
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1997 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
As World War II draws to a close, Albert Dehousse (Mathieu Kassovitz), a simple salesman in occupied France, dreams of having been something more important. And turning dreams into reality, he convinces his countrymen that he was actually a valiant member of the French Resistance. With a few facts and a lot of chutzpah, he succeeds beyond his wildest dreams. He becomes such an enormous and mysterious hero that people begin doting on his every word.
If A SELF MADE HERO (UN HEROS TRES DISCRET) sounds like a hundred other films (Tony Curtis's THE GREAT IMPOSTOR and Peter Sellers's BEING THERE come immediately to mind), it is. The difference is in the execution. The script by Jacques Audiard and Alain Le Henry, based on the novel by Jean-Francois Deniau, confuses the viewers by swirling a host of supporting characters past them in a blur. The first half of the film is hopelessly muddled with the latter half being relatively better.
Exacerbating the problems of the narrative, Jean-Marc Fabre's cinematography pans the camera in a constant twirl, and most of the first half is so dark that it is hard to see the expressions on the actors' faces. Juliette Welfling's erratic editing adds to the overall obfuscation. Even the editing of the newsreel footage is so choppy that it becomes difficult ascertaining what is happening.
All of this notwithstanding, the premise of the show has great promise. The film, which garnered many French cinematic awards last year, has taken over a year to get a U.S. distributor.
Although the film spends much of the time trying to be humorous, it rarely succeeds. It works better in its serious moments, but its attempts at poignancy are muted by the chaos of the storyline.
In the later part of the film, Albert emerges from the story's cloudy beginning. But by then, your interest in this much told tale may have waned.
A SELF MADE HERO runs 1:47. It is in French with English subtitles. The movie is not rated but would be an R for war carnage, brief nudity, and a little profanity. The film would be fine for teenagers.
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